44Cup World Championship Cowes - Day 1
by 44Cup 25 Sep 00:31 BST
23-27 September 2026
44Cup World Championship Cowes 2026 Day 1 © Nico Martinez / 44Cup
Following the King's Cup, Wednesday's well-received charity event between the Royal Yacht Squadron and the RC44 class, the unseasonably fine weather on the Solent continued for the opening day of the 44Cup World Championship Cowes, the highlight of the five event 2026 44Cup series.
Thanks to the proximity of the regional weather systems, today the 12-15 knot wind was not the prevailing southwesterly but instead was blowing up the Solent from the southeast. This permitting the race committee to set up the course up and down in the central Solent's North Channel, although the race course was highly tactical, the tide turning first on the right side of the course as the afternoon progressed.
Blazing off the start line in the first race was Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika, defending World Champion, and in fact the only RC44 team to have earned this title on five previous occasions.
"We managed to get a really good start and went the right way and the boat's going really well - so the first race was relatively straightforward. We managed to get the gap on the group and then just sail away," recounted Team Nika's British tactician Nic Asher. "So that was super pleasing - a good way to start the Worlds here in Cowes. But in the next two...it's a tricky fleet and if you make a couple of mistakes, you're out the back. So we'll take that win but we need to get back on form for the rest of the event..."
As to unravelling today's conditions on the heavily tidal Solent, Asher explained: "We had current against [upwind] and it was slowly dying through the day so it made the left-hand side pay in the first race for sure. Some of the shifts were really relevant although the next two races were a bit more open. It was tricky to understand if the current was going to impact or the wind. Making those decisions was quite hard." Helping Team Nika from their chase boat this week is local hero and round the world race winner Jules Salter.
Still on a high from having Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon on board with them yesterday was the Turkish Wow! Sailing Team, being steered this week by Murat Edin who finished today's first race in second place, ahead of Aleph Racing.
Aleph Racing, the team which won the first time the RC44s visited here in 2019 under Hugues Lepic, then took an early lead at the World Champion after winning today's second race. Helmsman Pietro Loro Piana enjoyed sailing out of Cowes on the Solent for the first time. "I have to say I'm truly impressed - I'm very happy to be here. Cowes is delivering a beautiful week of weather. This being my first time, everybody told me 'please don't expect this to be the usual Cowes'! Obviously we're in one of the sailing Meccas of the world and I'm truly happy to be here."
In this, event host Chris Bake's Team Aqua got the inside berth on Aleph Racing at the top mark to lead on to the run. Tactician Michele Ivaldi recounted: "Downwind, probably we had a tiny bit of an edge on Aqua and we managed to push them into a bad gybe in front of us and we gained just enough so we could go inside at the gate. That was the race..." This was despite Aleph Racing having had a problem with hoisting their jib before the start.
Their local knowledge is coming remotely from Graham Sunderland, famously co-author of the definitive book on navigating the Solent: Winning Tides.
In today's final race, Team Aqua resolved race two slipping through their fingers to claim their first bullet. Again this win was built off an immaculate start. Chris Bake commented: "I think we managed to get a decent start and get off the line well and that put us ahead on the first leg. We had a few boats chomping at our tail, but managed to stay ahead, and that was a nice result."
This being a World Championship naturally the pressure is on more than usual. As Bake observes: "The World Championship is special for everyone and celebrating it here in Cowes at the end of the Cowes Week Bicentenary and what's been a huge summer here, with some phenomenal weather and some phenomenal sailing - just being here and able to close off this year with this event is very meaningful."
So Aleph Racing leads at the end of day one but on count back, being tied with Markus Törnqvist's GeMera Racing, both a point ahead of Team Aqua. While being ahead is pleasing, far more important is that they haven't blown the regatta already given the tough competition. As Michele Ivaldi notes: "We didn't take ourselves out of the competition... With three more days to go and the fleet being extremely competitive, you cannot say anything is 'in the bank' until the last race on Sunday. I'm pretty sure everybody is going to start pushing even more from tomorrow onwards. We just try to keep doing what we're doing and try to do the best results that we can..."